


Like Our Names in the Sand

by zenonaa



Category: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 14:39:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17830475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenonaa/pseuds/zenonaa
Summary: "A distance back, Sakura sets up their station. While Aoi had been rushing ahead and smiling at the sea, Sakura had retrieved Aoi’s trainers and laid down a towel. She spreads out another towel beside her, brownish red, and sits down carefully on this one, folding her legs beneath her.Some would describe the distance between the sea and Sakura as ‘safe’, safe from its lurches and its paws, but Aoi doesn’t consider the sea dangerous."Asahina and Sakura go to the beach together.





	Like Our Names in the Sand

No one else is at the beach when Aoi and Sakura arrive. Aoi shoots toward the sea, kicking up sand along the way. Halfway there, she performs erratic hops as she wrestles her shoes and socks off, and after she discards them, she runs again. 

The wind whips her face and a briny scent shoots up Aoi’s nostrils as she takes a deep breath, but the smell isn’t solely from the sea ahead of her, that reaches shy of her bare feet as it throws itself forward over and over. It comes from the seaweed too, as well as from algae and plankton. Kiyotaka talked about why the beach smells like it does, once, and she had only half been listening.

“Asahina, my girl,” rasps a voice behind her. Aoi blinks and turns. A distance back, Sakura sets up their station. While Aoi had been rushing ahead and smiling at the sea, Sakura had retrieved Aoi’s trainers and laid down a towel. She spreads out another towel beside her, brownish red, and sits down carefully on this one, folding her legs beneath her. 

Some would describe the distance between the sea and Sakura as ‘safe’, safe from its lurches and its paws, but Aoi doesn’t consider the sea dangerous.

“Don’t go too far,” Sakura calls out, with a hand cupped around her mouth.

“I’ll be fine,” Aoi assures her, and she faces the sea again. Her first steps in drag. The sea licks her feet. She wanders further in, but heeding Sakura’s request, she goes no further than a pair of stockings would on her. 

During the winter months, an hour drive from where she used to live, there had been an annual swim at a beach to raise money for a charity set up by a famous swimmer who was born there. Aoi can recall being four and being told that she couldn’t take part, could only have a quick dip in the sea before being ushered out and wrapped in a towel.

For a while, Aoi just stands there, then she returns to Sakura and settles on the blue towel beside her. Sakura shifts.

“I apologise if I made you feel obliged to come over here so quickly,” she says, but Aoi shrugs.

“Don’t sweat it, Sakura-chan. I like being with you,” replies Aoi. She rests her cheek against Sakura’s upper arm.

“Fret not, my girl. I will still be here afterwards,” says Sakura with a fond smile. Aoi looks at the sea, and Sakura follows her gaze. “The water must be very cold. It’s almost winter, after all.”

“Uh huh, but that’s no problem for me,” says Aoi. She tucks her legs into her chest and wraps her arms around them. “Growing up, there was a charity swim I used to go to during winter, and I had to train a lot so I could take part seriously. You see, and this is high level science stuff, most swimmers who die in the sea don’t die because it’s too cold. If you’re not used to the cold, your body gets a big shock and you can’t breathe properly, so you’re actually more likely to die by drowning. So everyday, I would hose myself down with cold water, or fill our tub with cold water and sit in it...”

“You built up a tolerance,” says Sakura. She inclines her head. “Your determination is fearsome, Asahina, but let us not talk about dying anymore.”

That was becoming a bad habit. An understandable one, though.

Aoi nods and looks up at her. “Wanna make a sandcastle?”

“I would love to,” says Sakura warmly.

From Sakura’s canvas bag, Aoi extracts a bucket and spade, and she gets to work, scooping up sand and dumping it into the bucket until it fills. She smooths it flat with the back of the spade head and then tips the bucket upside down, slamming it against the sand. Three thuds sound out as Aoi taps the spade against the base of the bucket. Lifting it slowly, she reveals a mostly intact cyclical tower, and she creates three more, linking them together with walls of sand between them. 

“Let’s get some shells to decorate it,” says Aoi as she admires her handiwork.

Sakura nods and when Aoi rises, Sakura does too. Aoi takes Sakura’s hand and when they meet each other’s eyes, Aoi widens her smile, and Sakura returns a gentle slope on her lips. They amble along the shoreline, hand-in-hand, occasionally pausing to crouch down and pick up a shell. As they go on, their dips down become less frequent; still, Aoi ends up carrying more than she can hold in one hand, and she pulls out her vest top to cradle them.

Some fall off. She bends down to pick them up and drops more. With a pout, she reaches for a shell, but she pauses, spotting a stick nearby. The shells slide off into a pile at her feet and she takes the stick instead.

Aoi writes her name into the wet sand with the stick, three times, and then passes it to Sakura.

“You write yours now,” says Aoi. Sakura does, and for the next few minutes, they study their writing, listen to the static that the sea yawns.

Eventually, Sakura says, “We should head back to the school soon.”

“I know,” says Aoi quietly. She grasps Sakura’s hand and squeezes. “I just... wanted to see the sea, one last time, you know? Before we get locked up for who knows how long.”

“I understand.”

They gather up the shells and decorate the sandcastle with them. Then, they head toward a stone staircase on the far side, under a red sky, and they make their final journey back to the shelter together.


End file.
